The agricultural industry is a multi-billion dollar industry crossing all continents with the general aim of improving crop production. Crop production, whether for food or industrial use, is vital to the sustainability to human existence. As such, numerous governmental agencies, private companies, universities, and trade associations have been established to provide products, training, and information regarding crop technology in order to improve the profitability of the agriculture industry. The ability of society to produce various crops, particularly food related crops, faces several serious challenges. First, as the world population expands, the pressure to feed additional populations increases. Moreover, in many parts of the world, individuals are living longer. The amount of arable land relative to the increasing population is decreasing. In order to feed the world population and satisfy crop yield for industrial uses, numerous crop protecting substances, such as pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, or bio-engineered crops, have been developed to improve crop production. While these substances have been vital in increasing crop yields by controlling weed growth, effects of insects and plant-based pathogens and disease, use of these substances are not without controversy, including claims that such substances are harmful to humans, harmful to the environment, and particularly for bio-engineered crops, are harmful to the overall food chain.
Additional means of increasing crop production have been accomplished through the use of fertilizers. Fertilizers, whether organic, i.e. composed of organic plant or animal matter, or inorganic, are generally designed to supply different nutrients (such as macronutrients including nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and sulfur, micronutrients such as boron, chlorine, copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum, zinc, and nickel, to plants to aid in plant growth. The nutrients provided by the fertilizer then get absorbed into the plant. Numerous fertilizers and methods of making fertilizers are known in the art. Illustrative examples include U.S. Pat. No. 8,110,017, U.S. Pat. No. 7,811,352, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2012/0222170, and U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2011/02144465. While fertilizers are vital to increasing crop production, they are not without their own problems. Inorganic fertilizers have been known to contribute to water pollution, soil acidification, or trace mineral depletion.
Given the increased pressures on crop production, what is needed in the art is an improved crop enhancing substance, preferably a plant growth and soil enhancement formulation, in order to maintain adequate crop supplies for both food production and industrial use.